St. Mary's Academy students, Sisters of the Holy Family open hearts to children with a parent in jail

For 33 children whose parents are in prison, the holidays are
brighter this year, thanks to students at St. Mary’s Academy and the
Sisters of the Holy Family. The school and the nuns joined
to organize a party in St. Mary’s cafeteria, complete with treats,
visits with Santa, music and gifts.

Photos by Kerry Maloney, The Times-PicayuneFrom
left, Sister Ann Michelle Mercier and Sister Eva Regina Martin serve dinner
at St. Mary's Academy at a Christmas party for children of incarcerated
parents.

Senior
girls and nuns lined up behind a table, serving chili dogs and chips to
the children and their families. A smiling nun in a black and white
habit passed a microphone from child to child, giving each one a turn to
sing a song.

Nearby, the floor was covered with a colorful
blanket of wrapped presents and beribboned bags, each one with a child’s
name carefully handwritten on the tag.

Each class at St. Mary’s
Academy signed up to buy gifts for one of the children, said Sister
Judith Therese Barial, high school calculus and physics teacher. The
school enrolls boys and girls through elementary school and girls in
middle and high school.

After Hurricane Katrina, the school and
nuns reached out to the homeless living on Duncan Plaza next to City
Hall, Barial said. Two years ago the project embraced Cornerstone and
children whose parents were in prison.

“We ask the students to choose a child, and maybe give them a book or a jacket. But they are so generous,” Barial said.

Jardan
Jones, a senior, said the 16-year-old girl assigned to their class
requested toiletries. The class made her a basket of bath items such as
soaps and lotions. They also gave her school supplies.

“I think it’s amazing that we are able to help young kids in need,” Jardan said. “Because we are blessed as students here.”

View full sizeA huge pile of presents waits to be handed out at St. Mary's Academy during the Christmas party.

Each homeroom class sends two students to the party.

“This
is something that I personally look forward to each year,” said Lorena
Bickham, student council president and a member of the senior class.
While many of her friends have iPods and cell phones, “some of these
kids look forward to a shirt or a game for Christmas.”

The
mission to children of incarcerated people fits the life’s work of
Sisters of the Holy Family founder Henriette Delille, a native New
Orleanian who cared for the needy, slaves, the elderly and children,
said Sister Clare of Assisi.

“It was after Katrina, and it was
appropriate for us to connect with the least served,” she said. Many of
the students at St. Mary’s Academy are from low-income families, she
added. “But we still have to try to get the students to recognize that
regardless of how little they have, there are others who have less.”

The
guests of honor, ages 3 to 19, take part in a mentoring program run by
Cornerstone Builders, a Catholic Charities agency that works to
reintegrate former prison inmates back into the community. The nuns have
taken the agency under their wing, said Shatarra Gibson of Cornerstone.

“We’ve just kind of been adopted by the sisters,” Gibson said.

“Kids
of incarcerated people are six times more likely to become incarcerated
themselves,” she said. Besides the danger to their future, the children
grieve for the loss of a parent.

The organization takes its cue from Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”

“This
pretty much means that we cannot throw people away,” Gibson said. “It’s
important that we nurture everyone in our community — including the
children of people who have made mistakes.”